Despite its popularity among American Jewry during the mid-Twentieth century, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel ceased its operations in 1986. Located in Liberty, New York, the complex experienced several phenomena that stimulated its collapse as a tourist site for Jews that were eager to escape Manhattan during the summer months. Several economic, social and technological transformations contributed to the decline of Grossinger’s and, more broadly, Jewish tourism in the Catskill region. Following its abandonment, the former vacationland succumbed to various formation processes that exacerbated its cultural and structural depreciation. Once a site for cuisine, entertainment and, even, romance, Grossinger’s is now a collection of dilapidated buildings that contain the material indexes of its former guests. Memories in Ruin: the Remains of Jewish Identities and Tourism at Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel examines factors which prompted the complex’s demise. In his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies, Joseph A. Tainter identifies “the depletion of vital resources, establishment of a new resource base, failure to respond to circumstances, class conflict and a poor economy” as causes that incite an establishment’s downfall. These critical theories coupled with exploration of the dilapidated architecture will supplement this presentation’s investigation into the phenomena that incited Jews’ eventual disinterest in Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel. Despite its abandonment, the complex is likened to an museological site as the structures contain material residue that invoke visuals of its former guests. Clothes, furniture, greeting cards, magazines, newspapers, suitcases and time sheets are strewn throughout the complex and conjure the culture of Jews that once vacationed and worked at Grossinger’s. Although dirtied and decaying, these abandoned items provide an intimate glimpse at past tourist experiences lived by American Jewry through the merger of material, memory and space.
About the presenterElizabeth Morgan Stark Pysarenko
I am a doctoral candidate in the American Culture Studies program at Bowling Green State University. As an urban explorer, I access abandoned and defunct spaces and places the world over to examine their aesthetic and cultural significances.